Why cubic feet (CFT) matter
Cubic feet show how much volume an item, room, or shipment truly occupies. Whether you are filling garden beds with mulch, packing moving boxes into a truck, or confirming how many cubic yards of concrete to order, getting CFT right prevents overpaying for materials or freight.
Quick reference
- 1 ft³ = 1728 in³
- 27 ft³ = 1 yd³
- 1 ft³ = 28.3168 L
Measuring correctly
Use the same unit for every dimension. Measure length × width × height, then convert to feet if needed:
Common conversions
- 12 inches = 1 foot
- 3 feet = 1 yard
- 30.48 cm = 1 foot
- 0.3048 m = 1 foot
Accuracy tips
- Measure interior dimensions for boxes and rooms.
- Round up thickness for mulch or gravel (e.g., 2.5 in → 0.21 ft).
- Use decimals instead of fractions to avoid rounding errors.
Fast CFT examples
Moving box
24 in × 18 in × 18 in = 7776 in³ ÷ 1728 ≈ 4.5 ft³
Garden bed
10 ft × 4 ft × 0.5 ft = 20 ft³ (about 0.74 yd³ of soil or mulch)
Storage unit
10 ft × 10 ft × 8 ft = 800 ft³ (useful for comparing with truck capacity)
Concrete footing
2 ft × 2 ft × 0.75 ft = 3 ft³ (divide by 27 to get 0.11 yd³)
Shipping and pallet planning
Freight quotes often price by volume. Estimating cubic feet helps you pick the right pallet count and avoid dimensional-weight surprises.
Standard pallet
48 in × 40 in × 60 in ≈ 66.7 ft³
Half pallet
48 in × 40 in × 30 in ≈ 33.3 ft³
40-foot container
Standard capacity ≈ 2,390 ft³ (use for rough packing plans)
Avoid common mistakes
- Mixing inches and feet within the same calculation.
- Forgetting to multiply by quantity when estimating multiple identical boxes.
- Rounding down material depth (always round up for gravel, mulch, or concrete).
- Skipping conversions for liters or cubic meters when comparing supplier quotes.
Calculate instantly
Ready to get accurate totals without manual conversions? Our tool supports feet, inches, yards, centimeters, and meters, then converts to cubic yards, cubic meters, liters, and cubic inches.
Open the Cubic Feet (CFT) Calculator →